Jail staffer spied for daughter, got fired

County found that woman was checking up on inmate for seeing other women

The civil-service board has affirmed a decision by Sheriff William Gore to fire an employee who repeatedly accessed the visitation records of a jail inmate who was dating her daughter, to check up on him.

Investigators began examining the woman’s access history last year, after the inmate complained about the snooping. The employee’s daughter would confront the inmate with the names of other female visitors.

In a report released Thursday, the Civil Service Commission upheld the sheriff’s December termination order, saying the employee failed to exercise good behavior, was dishonest and committed acts incompatible with public service.

Document

“She was consistently deceitful throughout her testimony at both the department hearing and the hearing conducted by the civil service commission,” the report said. “She denied facts until confronted with overwhelming evidence and then, even after admitting to improper actions attempted to come up with new theories that would contradict her own admissions.”

The woman was not identified in public filings, nor was the detention facility. The civil-service review process protects the identity of county employees even in cases of termination.

According to commission findings, the employee accessed inmate records 62 times. In 19 of those cases, she reviewed visitation records for an inmate who was dating her daughter and passed the information to her son.

“When confronted with the inmate’s complaint, she admitted telling her son that the inmate was no good but denied telling anyone about the female visitors,” the report states.

Jail employees are trained not to access confidential records except for legitimate business purposes.